Street-traffic system



Nov. 11 1924.

H. W. GRAVES STREET TRAFFIC SYSTEM 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 11, 1924.77 V2! for" Nov. 11 1924 1,515,251

H. W. GRAVES STREET TRAFFIC SYSTEM Filed June 11, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet. 2

1M JLLL 4 I xl I I v In Mani-0r. I

# 07 GU -J Patented Nov. 11, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT, OFFICE.

HENRY w. canvas, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, .ASSIGNOR or onsnALr roman r.occur, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

STREET-TRAFFIC SYSTEM.

hpplication filed June 11, 1924. Serial No. 719,241.

T all whom it may concern.-

Be it known thatI, HENRY W. GRAVES, citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in a Street-Traific System;and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart to which it appertains to make and use thesame. 1

My invention relates to a system of street crossings for facilitatingthe movement of vehicles at'street intersections and for great- 1yreducing the possibility of accidents, while also eliminating the needof traflic oflicers and tratlic signals. 1 s

For these general purposes, my invention provides street crossingconstructions in which the roadways'of intersecting streets will alwaysbe disposed one above another, so as to afford a continuous free travelof all vehicles; and also rovides foot passages oil the level of the roaways crossed by them 5 so'as not to expose pedestrians to any dangerwhatever in crossing streets. My invention also rovides street crosssins arranged to aflfor loading platforms or street cars Without 'obligingthe street car passengers to cross any tracks, and disposes theseloading platforms so that the waiting or alighting' persons will besheltered from rain. Furthermore, my invention provides an arrangementof elevated driveways which will 36 greatly facilitate themaking ofturns by vehicles and particularly the making of ri ht-hand turns, andwhich also will permit left-hand turns to be made at certain streetintersect-ions without having the vehi- 40 cles making such left-handturns'cross the path of other vehicles or in any wayhinder the freemovement of other vehicles. 1 I

In a still further aspect, my invention provides a system of such streetcrossings in which arrangements of the crossings at the four corners ofeach block is consecut-ively shifted so that the various distinctiveparts of my crossing construction will 00-. operate with each other infacilitating the movement of vehicles to and from any part of the city,and so that right-hand turns can readily be made by vehicles aroundevery corner of most of the city blocks and also around certain cornersof other blocks.

Moreover, it provides a system for this pur" pose with-which theordinary driver of an automobile can soon familiarize himself, whichwill entirely obviate the need of trafiic oflicers and trailic signals,and one which will not interfere with the free movement of pedestriansaround the street corners or with their convenient access to buildingsat these corners.v Still further and also more detailed objects willappear from the following specification and from the accompanyingdrawings, in which-- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a streetintersection showing a crossing construction embodying my invention.

Fig. 2is a plan view of a portion of a city, showing such crossingconstructions as arranged in a highly advantageous manner.

Fig. 3 is a somewhat diagrammatic plan view of one of the streetcrossings of .Figs. 1 and 2, showing how my arrangement facilitates themovement of both pedestrians-and vehicles. I H I Fig. 4 is a similardiagram showing. a somewhat simplified arrangement, suitable foriuse onparticularly-wide streets. Y

In accomplishing the purposes of my in vention after the manneroftheawompanying drawings, my first step. iconsists in de-, pressingeach street at alternate intersections below the street crossingthesame, sothat every street will have both its roadway and I the adjacentsidewalks level at one street intersection, with the transverse'roadwayand sidewalks passing under the'sanie. At the next intersection thearrangement is reversed, namely :the first named street will haveitsroadway and sidewalks depressed and passing under the-nextcross-street, with the latter extending on the 'level both as to itsroadway and as to its sidewalks.

Asa second step, I provide angular driveways adjacent to threecorners ofeach street intersection and each affording a right-hand turn forvehicles. Each of these driveways comprises a driveway which isfirstinclined upwardly towards the corner along. one street and thendownwardly along the other street and which has its elevated cornerportion arched above the sidewalk sosas. to afford the passageway forpedestrians under the same. Thus, with th street L of Fig. 3 on thelevel, the arrows 1, 2 and 3 indicate the right-hand turns which canreadily be made by vehicles around three corners of the intersection, sothat in each case the corner turning vehicles will pass above thepedestrians on the sidewalks. By doing this and by also extending thesidewalks 4 of the level street (or street under which the cross-streetU passes) across and above the latter as shown at 5 in Figs. 1 and 3, Ipermit the pedestrians along the sidewalk of the said level street L tomove con-- tinuously without being blocked at any time by vehicles andwithout delaying such vehicles. Meanwhile, the pedestrians along thesidewalks 6 of the partly depressed street C can cross the level streetsafely by going down one of the Stairways 7 as shown in Fig. 1 through apassage under the roadwa of the said level street L.

is a second step, 1 connect the diagonally opposite right-angled turningelevated driveways corresponding to the arrows 1 and 2 of Fl 3 by anelevated roadway 8 which e ectively extends diagonally across the streetintersection, thereby permitting vehicles which are traveling from theright-hand end of Fig. 3 to make a left-hand turn as shown by the arrow9 of that figure. Since these vehicles are moving in the same directionas those which turn to the'right after the manner of the arrow 3, andsince they head towards the downward incline at the further side of thecrossstreet in the same direction with vehicles turning as indicated bythe arrow 1, the various vehicles will not have their paths cross eachother. Instead, they continuously move in the same general direction,thereby avoiding all confusion, obviating the necessity of trafficofficers or signals, and also avoiding delays.

As a still further step, I desirably also provide a downward incline insubstantial extension of the upward incline of the driveway along whichvehicles travel in the direction of the arrows 3 and 9, so as to permitvehicles which have started up the same incline to pass downward asindicated by the arrow 10 to the level street at the op posite side ofthe crossing. By doing this. I enable vehicles from the right-hand ofFig. 3 to move in a steady stream over certain parts of my driveway andcross-over system, regardless of the three directions which they maywish to pursue, namely the right-hand turn of the arrow 3, the lefthandturn of the arrow 9, or the straightahead direction of the arrow 10. Inpractice, such a provision is highly desirable on streets of averagewidth in which the approach incline for such a threaforked drivewaycomes rather close to the street car tracks, as the vehicles wishing tocontinue straight along the street will not be required to turn into thetracks first. Furthermore, this arrangement enables me to faciliate theloading and unloading of street cars at such a crossing, by simplyprovid ing loading, platforms ad]acent to the car tracks under theelevated part of the said three-forked driveway. Such a loading platformis shown in Fig. 1 at 11, and since this has its major portion disposedunder the driveway, it is effectively sheltered from rain, therebyadequately protecting both the unloading passengers and those who may bewaiting for the cars.

In employing such a cross-over construction in the business section ofany city, ll desirably vary the disposition of the same not only as tothe depression of each street at alternate corners, but also as to thedirection in which one of the driveways affords through travel withouthaving the vehicle alter its direction. For this purpose, I preferablyshift the direction of this through travel by turning the system ninetydegrees to the right at every consecutive corner along these streets,thereby causing the various features of my arrangement to cooperate witheach other in facilitating vehicle traffic and in enabling vehicles toreach any desired points expeditiously and without confusion.

For example, in Figm2 the arrows diagrammatically indicate thedirections of travel afforded for vehicles by the application of mysystem to a section of acity. From this figure it will be obviousthatright hand turns can be made around every corner of each of the blocksmarked R, and also about alternate corners of the blocks marked D. Itwill also be evident that in every group of nine blocks comprising arectangle having three blocks on each side, six out of the nine permitright-hand turns at every corner, while two other blocks permit suchturns only at their diagonally opposite corners. In other words, thehighly important right-hand turns are permitted at 28 out of the 36corners in such a nine block section.

Referring now to the illustrative embodiment of Fig. 1, itwill beevident from this that the single right-hand turning driveway at thestreet intersection consists-of an upward incline 12 connected to adownward incline 13; and that one right-hand turn from the level streetL at the opposite side of the depressed cross-street C is made by anupward incline 14 leading to a downward incline 15. The third upwardincline 16 which provides three different paths is connected to thedownward incline 17 for a right-hand turn, to the straight-aheaddownward incline 18, and to a cross-over 19 which also leads to thedownward incline 15. This cross-over 19 and the portion of the elevateddriveway leading to it may be disposed substantially at right angles toeach other, but still cooperate to afiord a three difl'erent downwarddriveways and hence will have relatively heavy trafficon it, Ipreferably make this wider than the driveway portions 17, 18 and 1.9.However, I do not wish to be limited to this or other details of theconstruction and arrangement here disclosed, it bein obvious that manychanges might be ma e without departing either from the spirit of myinvention or from the appended claims.

I claim as my invention 1. In a street crossing, an elevated roadwayextending efi'ectively diagonally across the street intersection,inclined driveways connecting each end of the elevated roadwayto bothstreets and respectively aflording right-hand turns from one of thestreets to the second street at the diagonally opposite street cornersbetween which the elevated roadway. efl'ectively extends, the elevatedroadwa cooperating also with two of the incline driveways to afford aleft-hand turn from the said one street to the said second street.

2. In a street crossin an elevated roadway extending effective ydiagonally across the street intersection, inclined driveways connectingeach end of the elevated roadway to both streets and respectivelyaffording right-hand turns from one of the streets to the second streetat the diagonally olpposite street corners between whlch the e evatedroadway effectively extends, the elevated roadway cooperating also withtwo of the inclined driveways to afford a lefthand turn from'the saidone street to the said second street, each of the inclined drivewaysextending parallel and adjacent to a street curb.

3. In a street crossing, driveways arching over the sidewalks of theintersecting streets and comprising an elevated roadway having two legsextendin respectively across the two streets, two pairs of inclineddriveways respectively connectingthe ends of the said elevated roadwayto both streets, and a fifth inclined drivewa leadin from the junctureof the said two egs of t e elevated roadway downwardly to the firstnamed street.

4. At the intersection of a first and a second street, driveways archingover the adjacent sidewalks and com rising two driveways adjacent todiagona 1y 0 posite corners of the intersection and eac affording aright-hand turn from the first street to the second street, an elevatedroadway connecting the higher portions of the said two dr veways, and. adownward incline leading 'from the elevated roadway to the first streetalong the right-hand side of the latter.

5. At the intersection of a first anda second street, driveways. archingover the adjacent sidewalks and com rising two driveways adjacent todiagona ly opposite corners of the intersection and a each affording aright-hand turn from the first street to the second street, an elevatedroadway connecting the higher portions of the said two driveways, and adownward incline leading from the elevated roadway to the first streetalong the righthand side of the latter, and another driveway extendingaround the street corner diagonally opposite to the said downwardincline and a ording a ri thand turn from the second street to the rststreet.

6. A street crossing construction as per claim 3, in combination with aloading latform extending below the first named leg of the elevatedroadway.

7. A street crossing construction as per claim 3, in which the roadwa ofthe intersecting street is depressed and passes underneath the firstnamed street.

8. A street crossin construction as per claim 3, in which hot theroadway of the intersecting street and the sidewalks at opposite sidesof the said roadway are depressed and pass underneath the first namedstreet.

9. A street crossing construction as per claim 3, in which both thefirst leg of the elevated roadway and the inclined driveway leadingupwardly to t at leg from the first named street are wider than theother roadway and driveway portions.

10. At the intersection of a first street with a second street, twodriveways arching above the adjacent sidewalks at diagonally oppositecorners of the street intersection and each affording a right-hand turnfrom. the first street to the second street, and an elevated roadwayconnecting the higher portions of the two driveways and cooperatin withparts of the latter to afiord a left-hand turn from the first street tothe further side of the second street, the connection between theelevated roadway and the driveway at the said farther side of the secondstreet.

being such as to prevent a driving from the last named driveway into theelevated way.

11. A street crossing system having street crossing constructions ateach corner as per claim 5, the dis osition of the driveways and theinclines being shifted ninety degrees to the right at each consecutivecrossing along either street.

12. A street crossing system having'street crossing constructions ateach corner as per claim 5, the disposition of the driveways and theinclines being shifted ninety degrees to the right at each consecutivecross' alo either street such as to alford rig t-haii turns around everycorner of three consecutive blocks out of every four consecntiv blocksalong a given street. 1

13. A street crossing system having street crossing constructions ateach corner as per 5) claim 5 the disposition of the driveways andthe'inclines being shifted ninety degrees to the right at eachconsecutive crossing along either street, each street being alternatelyabove and below the crossing streets at consecutive intersections.

14. A street crossing construction as per claim 1, in which the saidsecond street has its roadway depressed and passing below the roadway ofthe said one stree Signed at Chicago, Illinois, June 9th, 19%.

ENRY W. GRAVES.

